What Vacuums tell us about Free Market in Health Care

I’m shopping for a new vacuum cleaner and my head is spinning from the multitude of features, conflicting reviews, and range of costs. Adding insult to injury, the same high quality vacuum that costs over $600 here actually costs less by over $200 in Europe. (Google the cost of a Miele or Sebo in UK and here). Other than health care I have trouble thinking of something that costs less in Europe than here.

I’ve been told we, the U.S., have the most efficient marketplace in the world in the U.S. That competition will find the “right” price.

What my experience tells me is that marketplaces can be manipulated, even for something simple and mundane.

Imagine how easily we could be manipulated if the issue is more complicated; the costs are 100 times more’; and if you don’t fully understand the problem and the options. Maybe that’s part of our health care waste alluded to in the last post.